There were four main ancient River Valley civilizations: the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia, the Nile River of Egypt, the Indus River of India, and the Yellow River of China. These civilizations showed specific similarities and contrasting differences. Many of these differences and similarities showed up in the three categories of the technological advances, the types of government, and the geography of the civilization. Two civilizations that are very interesting to delve deeper into and study the contrasting societies are China and Egypt. Since China and Egypt were both isolated from the outside, they developed with a strong focus on technology and learning with strong governments to hold the nations together.

One similarity between the two is writing. Both had a very sophisticated, strange way of communicating in writing. Egypt and China both used symbols for their writing. The symbols had no relation at all to the language of either civilization. Egypt called this writing hieroglyphics. This writing was used chiefly in recording spells and keeping records. Similarly, Chinese writing was used for keeping a record of trade and money transactions. Both civilizations also required an irrigation system to help regulate and utilize the nearby rivers’ sources. However, this is where the similarities of technology ends. Egyptians focused primarily on the afterlife. They built grand pyramids as burial sites and afterlife protection for Pharaohs and important nobles. The Chinese spent their efforts building roads for easier trade and canals for efficient, improved farming. The Chinese also created the blast furnace. This resulted in cast iron and better weapons and agricultural tools. The Egyptians, however, created the calendar. This was very important in their society because it helped to keep track of when the floods would arrive and when the farmers should begin planting. Without the calendar, the Egyptians may have never survived and thrived...

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Read this essay on Egypt ! (694 Words)
Egypt is a country that is situated within the North Africa mainly. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Sudan to the south, Israel and Gaza strip to the northeast and Libya to the west and red Sea to the east.
It is one among the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The best monuments in Egypt are the Giza pyramid complex and it Great Sphinx were built by theancient civilization of Egypt. The best tourism spot in Egypt is the Red Sea Riviera. When talking about the economy, it has one among the most diversified in the Middle East.
To have a better understanding of Egypt, we shall go into the history of Egypt. Around 3150 BC, a unified kingdom was formed by King Menes that led to a series of empire that ruled Egypt for about the next three millennia.
The Egyptian culture was flourished during this period and it remained distinct in all aspects like religion, arts, customs and language. The first two dynasties constituted the Old kingdom and they have constructed most of the pyramids in Egypt.
The daily life in Egypt revolved around the river Nile and due to the yearly flooding, it several rulers. There was the Roman and Ptolemaic Egypt and the last ruler of that era were enriched the land and thus made it very...

...Campbell
History 114
3/20/14
Religion in AncientChina and Egypt
Religion has played a very important role in society and the history of mankind for over thousands of years. Originally created by ancient peoples as a way to explain the unknown, religion has greatly evolved and spread across the globe. As new religions have formed and spread, the diversity and similarities between these new religions have also increased, especially due to their geographic locations. Two civilizations in particular with both similar and distinct religions are ancientChina, and ancientEgypt. Ancient Chinese religion and ancient Egyptian religion share many things in common with each other, yet at the same time they are also vastly from one another. Even though there are similarities between many of their gods, beliefs, ideas, and practices, the differences between the two religions helps clearly separate one from the other, and also helps identify their origins.
In ancientEgypt, people were constantly faced against natural disasters, famines, droughts, and plenty of other natural phenomena. Without an explanation for all of these events, ancient Egyptians had to create an explanation of their own, and by doing so ended up creating their own religion. By creating a religion, these...

... The Cultural Development of ancient Egyptians and ancient Chinese civilizations were fairly similar but were different on certain ideas. From the way historians looked at the number of gods/goddesses each civilization worshipped, to the inventions and tools the craftsman made to make life less difficult shows the similarity of the two civilization. Both couture's buried their dead with items of value, practiced ancestor worship, had elaborate systems of Bureaucratic systems of administration and, had rudimentary concepts of Mathematics and Medicine.
Ancient Chinese religion based upon Confucianism. Both Taoism and Confucianism began at about the same time, around the sixth century B.C.E. China's third great religion, Bu. The religion of AncientEgypt was a polytheistic (many gods) religion with one short period of monotheism (one god). Their religion hosted about 700 different gods and goddesses. Despite the similar concepts of the 2 civilization ancient Chinese: In Egypt, people were buried with thought to preservation, as they believed that the dead would be able to use their bodies in the afterlife. Chinese burial style depended on the province as well as the main religion of the person. But both civilizations were polytheistic (belief in many gods).
AncientEgypt belief system relied...

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The Origin of Egyptian Religion
The worshiping and all
Ancient Egyptians practiced polytheism, which is the belief of more than one religious idol. People who practice polytheism have multiple gods that serve different purposes. Ancient Egyptians had leaders that were called Pharos. “The pharaohs held absolute power and provided a stable central government; the kingdom faced no serious threats from abroad; and successful military campaigns in foreign countries like Nubia and Libya added to its considerable economic prosperity.” (History, “AncientEgypt” History.com) Pharaohs’ were put in charge according to their family line. Pharaohs’ forced the people of Egypt to build them pyramids. A pyramid was made for a pharaoh when he was in power. After the pharaoh has passed away, they take his body, mummify it, and bury him in the tomb with all of his/her riches. Religion has a lot to do with why the ancient Egyptians did certain things the way they did.
Egyptians had a lot of gods. Most Egyptians only pay attention to the most important gods like the Amum, Anubis, Atum, Geb, and Horus. Amun was one of the most powerful gods. Anubis was the god of embalming the dead. Atum was the creator god. Geb was the God of earth. Horus was the god of the sky.
AncientEgypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower...

...and the rights for women that no other society had at the time. Egypt did expand tremendously but eventually collapsed and then re-developed, continuing on their legacy.
This civilization was created around 1100 BC and was geographically isolated and located in the northeast corner of Africa. They were between both the sea and desert which prevented any other forms of life from entering their area and attacking. They also had the Nile River that was 750 miles long which they relied on to flood each year.
The Egyptians were very strong believers in order and organization of their community and because of this belief they created a social class system. This pyramid had the pharaoh on top, followed by priests and nobles, then traders, artisans, shopkeepers, and scribes, continuing with farmers and herders, and finally unskilled workers/slaves at the bottom. The Pharaoh was both their religious idol and their political leader which put him above all others.
As for their religious beliefs, the Egyptians were polytheistic (believed in many gods) and had human and animal forms of god. They also followed Divine Kingship and had a book entitled The Egyptian Book of the Dead, which was not really a book, it was just magical spells written down by the Egyptians. These spells were used to help the Egyptian civilization safely reach the afterlife and they have uncovered a total of 200 spells from the ancient world...

...Comparative Essay
Shang China Vs. AncientEgypt
The Shang Period of China (1750-1045 B.C.E.) and the Egyptian Culture (3100-1070 B.C.E.) were separated by thousands of years and developed in totally different regions, yet share some interesting similarities in culture, religion, government, politics, social structure and migration. They were both tomb builders with a highly organized social structure governed by a central ruler with a large army, but the Egyptian civilization is considered to have been far more advanced in the development of their culture. The natural borders of both societies allowed for them to develop independently which makes their similarities more interesting.
The Shang Period of China and the Egyptian culture shared many advancements in common. They both domesticated animals and crops that supported large populations, developed bronze weapons, chariots, bows, and large well-organized armies, as well as the use of a written language. They also shared a common belief in tomb building for their rulers and placed objects in Tombs for use in the afterlife. While both cultures had similarities, the Egyptians were far advanced in their engineering and building of tombs, and monuments, artwork, and understanding of mathematics, and astronomy. They were also more advanced in their writing called hieroglyphs and a cursive script. Also, the Egyptians are the builders of the great...

...In the beginning of history, many different civilizations appeared. Geography heavily impacted these civilizations, and among these civilizations were AncientEgypt and Early China. Both of these great civilizations started from a river valley and slowly developed in to great nations, but these two civilizations based their agriculture beginnings off different crops; China had wheat and millet while Egypt had barley and cereals, yet both of these civilizations were able to last and survive to this day.
Early growth of the two civilizations reflected one another. Both civilizations were surrounded by natural land barriers restricting them both to an isolated form of growth; AncientEgypt had the Sahara Desert to the west and the Arabian Desert to the east; the only form of contact that they had was from Nubia. Just as the Egyptians had their boundaries, the Chinese had their contacts limited by the Himalayas, many different deserts, and the Pacific Ocean leaving only a small area from which the Chinese could trade from. This explains why the Chinese artifacts are mainly found only in the Asian area; the culture did not spread because China did not trade with other countries this early in the century. Another similar growth is that they are both river-based civilizations; Egypt had the Nile while China had the Yellow and Yangzi. These...

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AncientEgypt and Mesopotamia
AncientEgypt and Mesopotamia both developed in river valleys. These first civilizations in the Middle East, Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates and Egypt by the Nile River. They are early civilizations that relied heavily on geographies and their surrounding environment. Mesopotamia featured distinctive cultures and was also the home of the worlds first set of laws. The Egyptian civilization formed near the Nile River and in the Sahara desert, so a strong society was needed to prosper in this harsh environment. As both civilizations formed close to important rivers and fertile land, they developed similarly (Ecks, 2012).
Mesopotamia and Egypt both relied on their rivers to survive their everyday lives. Mesopotamia was divided into two lands, Sumer and Akkad and then both of the lands got together and became Babylonian , a flat country. Also, Sargon which is the king the Mesopotamians worshipped , king of Sumer which Akkad symbolized the claim of Universal domain. Mesopotamia and egypt were also very agricultural. Mesopotamia had little to no natural defenses. They were open to invasions and got took advantage of quit often. The Assyrians were the last to take over before the Persians conquered them. They built pyramids called Ziggurats. Cuneiform was the Mesopotamians writing system. They created Cuneiform around 3500 B.C.E and...